Plant a Thought.

I am smitten by a new hobby. Gardening.

Two pretty white flowers bloomed in the balcony of the apartment opposite ours. Like all other infatuations of a woman, this also was triggered by a "neighbour's-envy-owner's-pride" case. I don't know anything about rearing a plant, but I wanted a plant as well, at any cost!!!!

From the time I remember, I have never been too involved in making a garden. One among the handful of incidents was when we planted a sapling on vanamahotsava day in school and I have no clue what happened to it later. Watching mom "waste" an entire Sunday forenoon session digging up the soil and cutting plants and soiling her clothes and slippers was what gardening meant for me! And I didnt fancy doing all that and getting dirty!

But never mind the past. This weekend, 4 people whose total Gardening Quotient (GQ) didn't exceed 20 found a nursery where we could get saplings. "finding a nursery" was another long story since nobody was sure if the nursery my hubby dear used to see on his way to school 15 years ago still exist or not and after much speculation and help from shop keepers and confused strangers on the roads, we found that it did exist!

We were welcomed by a 45-50-looking man wearing a lungi and shirt. There was a whole bunch of plants to choose from, I noticed!
Me : "Oru chedi venam" (We want a plant)
He : (a little surprised with my innocent request) ok..
Me : (Smile and stand, coz I can't explain anything more!)
He : (Smile and stand, coz he can't help me unless I speak more!)

After a few minutes of agonizing silence for the 3 people who accompanied me, I cleared my throat and attempted to explain what I was looking for..
"ee apartmentile balcony-il vekkaan oru chedi venam. Chedi valuthaavaruthu. Poo okke venam. Valya kashttapaadonnumillaathe poo undaakanam. Anganathe ethu chediya nallathu?"(I want a plant that I can keep in the balcony of my apartment. It shouldn't grow. It should have a lot of flowers. Without too much of effort from my end, it should bloom. Which plant should I take?)

Obviously, he didnt like my requirements! So he didnt answer my question, but motioned me to take a look at the plants in the nursery.

I would point to each plant and ask the same question "itu valuthaakuo?" (Will this grow?) and after committing a few mistakes by replying with a "ohhh...nallonam valarum" (yes, it will grow really well), to which I responded "ohh..enna venda" (is it? then I dont want it) he strategically started answering with "illa, valare slow growth-a.. 4 years edukkum" (its got a very slow growth, takes 4 years to grow even a little). Hmm..smart!

Soon the 4 of us dispersed to four different directions that the confused gardener lost track of us! The impression that he had of us when we walked in smiling was probably all washed out, for he was seen scratching his head and wondering if we would leave him free and get lost! He would never have seen so many fools in one frame!

Finally we narrowed on a few pots of marigold and daisy-like flowers. 20 rupees each was a big deal, I thought. In Bangalore, this would cost me atleast 60 or 70!

4 faces looked carefully at the marigold pots.
FIL : "Itinu valam okke engana?" (What do we add as manure?)
He : "Chanaga podi ittal mati" (You can add cow-dung)
chorus : "CHANAGAMO???? Atonnum kittilla avde!" (COW-DUNG?? We don't get that in Bangalore!)
He : "Jaiva valam.ellu podi aaylum mati" (any bio-manure. you can add crushed bones also)
me : as if that is easy!

Then there was this discussion on how to re-plant it once we go home, how many times to water, how much to water, how to take it in car and many more how-tos and we were done. Marigolds, it was! In another 10 minutes, we walked out, each with a marigold pot in hand.

A 10 hour long tiring journey in car and here they are, my marigolds and daisy-like plants, dropping dead in my balcony. Sigh! But I do want them to bloom!

Past, Present and Future Tag ..

Tagged by Gasper !

In fact, I thought I would do only a portion of the tag, The yesterday, Part A alone and make it into a post. But then I decided to play fair and take up the entire thing :)

But I will definitely add a new post just for that section in my next post :)


The tag:

Two questions in each category answer them and then tag your friends from the blog-o-sphere.

(Simple enough right?)

Leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been tagged and you are all set.

I. Yesterday

A. Your oldest memories

Aged around 3 - Bro left for school, and I got bored at home!

1) Watching and waving at people on the road for 3 hours in the morning, over the compund wall. It was a complicated process. I wear my "blue-n-white hawai slippers", and to reach the wall, I needed to stand on my right leg on the remains of a cut tree. My left leg would be wrapped around my right one. In due course of time, my parents discovered a mysterious hole appearing within 2 weeks of having bought the slippers, and interestingly, only on the right slippers, of every new pair :))
2) Waiting for "orange", the man who used to sell oranges. When he came near our gate, he calls would get extra louder "Waaaaaoooorangeyyyy". Dad used to get one for me every day :)

3) Looking for hours at the Monalisa painting hung on the wall at home and telling everybody that its Mommy's picture :) Well, I was damn sure it was.. :)

4) Mannu theetta :)) Yep.. its too embarassing! But I used to love eating the soil!
This is aged around 2! Mom would come running in panic the moment she hears this call "Mommmmyyyyyyyyyyy..... Sooryaaaaaaaa....... mannnnnnnuuuuuu...... thinnunoooooooo". If she reaches before the word "mannnuuuu" ends, she spanks me on my hand, if late by a word, she has to dig her fingers into my mouth!

5) Dad forcing a bulls-eye into my mouth and me screaming the world out! Ammamma
looking pathetically at me. PJ enjoying his bulls-eye at the dining table. In fact, playing with it by gently jiggling the gooooey yellow centre. An hour after the ordeal, I puke on the sofa as a mark of truimph :D The first and last bulls-eye I ever had!


Aged 4-5.

6) Getting ready to school. Holding dad's index finger with all my fives and crossing the road.

7) Fights with Dhanya to get "side-seat" in bus :)

8) PJ cutting characters out from my new UKG english work book and making shadow-puppets!!!!!!! And me crying.

9) All the "Chess Championships" with PJ and Gouthu etta, with my "exterptise in
defence", a single game would go for a whole day!!!!! Then I would lose with Gouthu etta, and I would cry! Finally ammamma would play with me (she doesnt know how to, but I didnt know it then) and lose , just to make me happy about my "bronze medal" :)

10) Dahlia teacher beating me up in UKG, for talking in the class. My legs were pink, with marks of the cane, but I can't believe, I didnt cry at all!

11) Proudly singing "vara veena" for english oral test in UKG, when asked to sing
"any rhyme". This option was given after I admitted I didnt know "Johnny Johnny" and "Little Miss Muffet"! Maggie teacher complained to bro. Complaint being "your sister doesnt know any rhyme. Why is she so dumb when you are so bright!" :-S

Aged 6

12) Enter KVK, the best times I have ever had. Scoring 100% in all subjects in 1st
Std and surprising my mom. My mom had lost hope in me in terms of studies after the "vara veena" incident!

13) First steps into painting. Drawing the yellow-n-orange lil bird in every page my
rough book :) (Rough sketch on MS Paint)
A year later, PJ used to make me draw one painting every day after I am back from school and only then let me go out to play! He would carefully stack the sheets and keep it safe somewhere. I wonder where they are now! :)

Aged 7-8

14) PJ watching UGC programs on Doordarshan!! There would be this guy who has a neat
handwriting. He would draw different kind of triangles with a black marker pen and write some stuff. PJ in rapt attention. Make a small noise, and you are dead meat in his hands! :)

15) First books... sifting through "The Three Bears".. reading "When Daddy was a
little boy" for the 100th time... Sunny's Stories from Muthacha's collection...Biju mama getting us books each time he came to see us...


Well..ending here :) Will continue in a new post :)


B. What were you doing ten years ago?


1) In 9th std in KVK. Busy with Social Science Projects... we had made a model of the Apsara reachtor at BARC.

2) The VMS(Vaish-Malu-Soo) club in full swing! Science experiments done in Vaish's
house. "Making bacteria".. looking through her microscope at ants..small stuffs.. :)) our hugely successful VMS lending library business and selling hand-made greeting cards and book marks to friends and family and spending all the money :))

3) Made papier-mache with atta, maida and news papers and stowed it under Vaish's bed and forgot about it. Vaish's mom detected some very very very bad smell in her room, but never knew what it was! Even we didnt realise, until the maid pulled the stuff out from under the bed and ohhh mannnn... :(

4) Mills and Boon... more Mills and Boon :) Followed by crushes..crushes...more
crushes;)

5) Table tennis tournies and walk-outs :)))


II. Today

A. Your first thought in the morning

Trrring...Tringgg...alarm goes off at 6:45.
My mobile calendar showed an event : Corporate Anniv.
Today, I complete 3 years in the industry :)


B. If you build a time capsule what would it contain?

1) It would contain all my diaries I have maintained in my teens. I would want my daughter(when I have one :)) to read them when she goes through the same age as I was when I wrote them.

2) Few of my fave clothes. Just want to look at them later and think how small I was :)

3) Some special e-mails, threads, chat logs exchanged between me and you-know-who :), to read them later on and to make my day


III. Tomorrow

A. This year…

Is almost done.. am not looking forward to anything great till dec..

B. What do you see yourself doing 14 years from now?

I would be 39 years old!!! I would be seen packing lunch boxes, hurrying through the
daily routines and running for my cab (yeah, I am sure I wouldnt have perfected the art of driving a car even then!) to take me to office. I would probably be checking my gmail.. gmail would have some really great features... and well... would be a happy female for sure
:)

I tag.. nobody in particular. If it fascinates you, take it up:)

Bru kaapi and Marie Biscuit

If you are a huge fan of chai-biskut, then you should be trying the bru-kaapi-marie-biscuit also!! Am sure you would love it!

Imagine this... You tear open a pack of Britannia Marie and find that its the best pack you have ever laid your hands on. The biscuits are perfectly aligned and held tight against the cover. You notice that the vulnerably delicate edges of the biscuits are still intact and there is not a sign of rough-handling by the super market boys. No powdered heaps of biscuits between two slices and all is perfect...oh great!!!


You hum a tune to yourself and make a cup of bru kaapi and pour it into a larger-than-usual-brightly-painted-yellow-and-white coffee mug to its brim. Leaving a trail of aroma as you rush to the dining table, the coffee mug is placed gently on the straw mat and you take the first of the marie biscuits from the pack.

After giving it a long look and having "tested OK" you gently dip it into the coffee. The mug is wide enough to let you dip the biscuit until only half of it is seen outside. And being an expert, you know to the precision of milli seconds as to how long you should keep it dipped so that it is as soft as possible, yet not flabby and dripping! A fraction of a second here and there, and you will either end up with a hard crust in your mouth or an unobtainable lump of soggy biscuit in the bottom of the coffee mug.

Instinct says its time to lift up the biscuit from the coffee. And the moment it is out, there is no time to waste. You immedietely let the soaked half of the biscuit crumble inside your month, warm and soft and along with it some crust from the other dry half as well. Hmmm.... heavenly!!!! :)) Enjoy your cup today!


PS - I got a lovely pic from flickr for this post... but with issues of copyright and stuff and moreover, it being tea rather than coffee, I rather take my own one soon. If it comes well, I shall post :)

The story of a Kissan Jam Bottle

Am not feeling well today. I have a runny nose, fever and an aching body to give company all day long. The dull aches that sinusitis gives my face only adds to my misery.

Took an off from work today lest the AC worsens my situation.

Catching a cold means the end of the world for me. I become as irritating as a 5 yr old refusing to go to school. Having hubby also not around makes you feel all the more sick.

To cheer up, I looked in the cupboards to see if there was anything interesting. Some books, my old jeans which do not fit any more, some crockery, some bulbs...hmm..bulbs..thats interesting. I rummaged and found 4 of them, all in proper working condition.

Immediately enquired Google if there was anything I could do with a used bulb. They said I could make glitter bulbs. But it involved lot of technical uncertainties. The ones I had were working ones and if I did what they told, hubby dear wouldn't be pleased to see 4 good condition bulbs become glitter pots.

But nevertheless, I read through and found it pretty good. I managed to find a Kissan Jam bottle from kitchen and did the same thing. See ->






To do this, you would need

1) A glass bottle
2) Glass paints of any colour (I used Sunset Yellow)
3) Glitter or any small-tiny-decorative stuffs. I used the "springy-gold-coils" I got along with the Tanjore painting kit.
4) err... Thats it.. and a small amount of patience :)


How to do:

Pour in a generous amount of glass paints into the bottle. I used about 20 drops.

Keep rolling the bottle so that the paint spreads evenly around the bottle. Take care otherwise you might end up with thick coats on one side and thin on the other.

Once done, invert the bottle and place a glass beneath to collect the excess paint from the jar.Keep it for a good 15 minutes.

Wipe the mouth of the bottle with a tissue.

Now, sprinkle glitter or anything that catches your fancy and shake the bottle so that they get stuck on the edges.

If the paint looks wet, dry it with a hair-dryer.

Use a colourful ribbon to cover the mouth of the jar. (I didn't do this)

Your little flower-vase is ready!

Walking along the Jews Street...

"Jews Street", said the white letters on the bright green board. I read it aloud in my mind again and again.. there was a rustic charm in even the name, I thought.

Probably I must have stood there and mused for a few abnormally long minutes, for I had to run to catch up with the others who had already walked a few feet ahead
by now.



Tip-toeing on the wet pavement with quick short steps lest I wet the only jeans I had packed for my weekend trip, my eyes traced the all the little bric-a-bracs in the dimly lit curios shops lining either side of the narrow pavement.

There had been a light drizzle just a few minutes ago and people were hurrying up with coloured umbrellas, gently clashing against each other as they made their way in opposite directions.

My eyes were still hungrily scanning the curios shops. I wasn't looking for anything in particular.. the sight was a feast for my eyes.

The huge hand-blown glass lamps in unimaginably bright shades of shocking pinks, bottle greens, deep blues and placid browns with ornate brass filigree, the exquisite beligian glass chandeliers, hand-painted ivory tiles with intricate designs in blue, the delicately done cross-stitch napkins all were a story in itself, of a bygone era of riches.. a bygone era, now easily price-tagged and sold as "anitques".

An old Jewish lady sat in one of the shops, soft yellow light casting a warm glow on her creme gown draping her frail body, as she fiddled with a piece of white cloth, coaxing her aged eyes to get the stitches right, in vain. The now sunken eyes still had a warmth in them, the same warmth familiar to every grand-child on earth.

I walked past more shops lining the roads, to reach the synagogue at the other end, standing silently and seemingly reluctanct to communicate, for whoever comes these days speak a foreign tongue, except for the few others like the grandma in creme gown who sat there coaxing her aged eyes to get the stitches right, in vain..

...................................................

PS: Pics will come soon :)
[Edited] : Pic added!

10 tickets to my Good Books!

1) Mr/Ms Really Intelligent : People who can speak in depth about not-so-common topics in so simple a words yet with so much of clarity that they can leave me open-mouthed! I have felt that to me intelligence is more than saying "yeah, i know it and i can explain if u want". It lies in HOW you explain.

Came to think of it, this was a question during an interview in Google.
- Explain a database in three sentences to your eight-year-old nephew :)
And somebody posted a reply in 2 lines "It's like a genie who knows where every toy in your room is. Instead of hunting for certain toys yourself and searching the whole room, you can ask the genie to find all your toy soldiers, or only X-Men action figures, or only race cars -- anything you want."

And I loved it :)

2) Mr/Ms Cool n Smiling : These people slip into my good books very easily.I adore people who can remain as cool as a cucumber even when there is chaos! They don't panic and their minds are in perfect equilibrium to make good decisions that nobody will repent! Just how do they do it!!! As for the smile part, :)

3) Mr/Ms Nice-Writer/Book worm : Been ages since I read something now, and I maintain a very ordinary looking blog.So when I meet people who have read a lot, I am more than happy to hear them speak. Same with people who have honed their writing skills to come up with intriguing stories, sweet-nothings packed in beautiful expressions. Short story contest winners earn special respect :)

4) Mr/Ms Up-to-date : They get all the facts and figures right. They know whats happening around the world, they know whats new in technology, they know all the news around the world!

5) Mr/Ms Humble :
They know they are great. Others know they are great. They know others know they are great. But still they don't show-off the fact that they are great.

6) Mr/Ms Birthday Rememberers : People who remember your birthday and wish you (without using reminders in mobiles/calendars) are a rare species of people whom I consider are the warmest and the most genuine of spotlessly clean hearts!!

7) Mr/Ms PJ Crackers : Sounds cheesy. But I do adore them for all their rotten PJs!! I just can't help liking their PJs :) There is one lady I know who cracks really really really bad PJs ...
and sometimes I have actually wished I could crack such rotten ones like she does :))

8) Mr/Ms Kids Lovers : They, like Birthday Rememberers, are a special lot who are always assumed to be good at heart, loving and affectionate!

9) Mr/Ms Great Cooks : Man, this one might be on the top if I arranged it on a proper scale! Rightly said the way to a man's (or woman's, these days) heart is through his (her) stomach!

10) Mr/Ms Punctual : I hate to be made to wait for someone. I hate it if the person rushes in 30 minutes late and gives a lame excuse and says sorry and expects me to say "Its ok." Probably I am one such person and I know how it irritates others! Probably thats why I love people who are well on time :)

Teddy at Twenty!

Are you knitting your eye-brows at the thought?
Or are you smiling end to end?

Probably it wouldn't figure in the heavily revised Girl's-best-friend-list, but would unanimously be voted to occupy that special place in her heart.

And guys grrrrrooooaaannnn at the thought. Some (read it as Most) guys think its "too-girlie", "too-baby-ish" and a lot of other-ish for a twenty-something girl to be found owning a teddy bear!

They pull your legs, poke fun at you and call you "beiibeeeee" if they know you hug your teddy while you sleep ...

They twist the teddy's face, throw it up and down, kick it like a football, and tug at its satin ribbons...

All said and done, on Valentine's, they gift you a teddy, with a big red heart! What an irony!

Note: A post from a married-woman showing contempt towards the male species is imedietely seen as a way of showing contempt towards ones husband :) Please spare mine from being the object of interest in your comments, he doesn't mind teddies :)

Tagged on a boring day...

Tagged by Geo, here we go!

1. LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER:

Race, at Innovative Multiplex. It started off in a jazzy ranch with horses and what
not...and the story twisted and turned every second with all the characters plotting against each other until you start feeling a throbbing pain around the nape of your neck and in the end leaves you with just one question "So where are all the horses!!"

2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING?
Been a long while now! I have few books near my bed which I sift through for God-alone-knows-what-sake when am guilty.. Head First Java, J2EE technolgies :))

3. FAVORITE BOARD GAME?
Snakes n Ladders!! Nothing to match it. Used to play chess and have a record of never winning.

4. FAVORITE MAGAZINE?
Still love to read the termites-eaten 1950s issues of Reader's Digest that are stacked at home.
And there is nothing that I hate more than the recent issues with its junk calories,diets and diseases info..

5. FAVORITE SMELLS?
Smell of coffe, kappa-meen, smell of damp earth after the rains, smell of babies after their bath with J&J soap, mom's starched sarees, smell of new books...

6. FAVORITE SOUND?
Typing on the keyboard, Sand saying Goodnight, Titan ad music, deafening sound of waterfalls, school bell, a new chat window opening up with a 'blim' sound :))

7. WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?
People not believeing that you are saying the truth and circumstances are such that you can't find any evidence to prove it too!!

8. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE?
Ohh..am late again..milk..newspaper...breakfast..get ready..no pressed clothes..run..cab...sequence is played again and again until I get out of bed!

9. FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE?
Hmm... CCD or Dominos :)

10. FUTURE CHILD'S NAME?
Tough question..not thought of yet. Wil come up with a few during those loooong 9 months :-p

11. FINISH THIS STATEMENT. "IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I'D...?
ask for a little more ;-)

12. DO YOU DRIVE FAST?
No :) No more questions on my driving skills pls!

13. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?
Before wedding, I had a bunny, a teddy and a monkey to share the bed till midnight, after which they mercilessly end up somewhere on the floor.. right now, things haven't changed much..sleeping with a BIGGER stuffed animal :-S

14. STORMS-COOL OR SCARY?
Never been in a scary one yet. So may be cool.

15. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?
:( Do Hot Wheels count?

16. FAVORITE DRINK?
"Jeerovellam" :)

17. FINISH THIS STATEMENT, "IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD .....
make 5 dishes for dinner instead of the usual 2, bring in atleast 10 bugs in my code instead of the usual 2-3, check orkut more often instead of the usual every tea/coffee/lunch breaks, try to reach more frnds over fone.

18. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?
I have never even eaten Broccoli. For that matter, I am sure I would hate it for its colour alone!

19. IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?
Will prefer the natural color!

20. NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN.
Palakkad -> Bangalore. (Yeah,it ends there)

21. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Watching Sand play NFS and Flight Simulator for hours and hours and hours ...! allathe entha!

22. ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU.
Speechless!

23. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED?
Pooky pooky poo.

24. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN?
No doubts,yes. But please, shall I be a lil taller?

25. MORNING PERSON, OR NIGHT OWL?
Neither... :) I want to sleep!

26. OVER EASY, OR SUNNY SIDE UP?
Rephrase please. :(

27. FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX?
Home sweet home. In front of the PC. (ie, Relaxation starts once you have won the battle for the PC)

28. FAVORITE PIE?
Sweetie pies? :p

29. FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?
Pls don't confuse me. I like them all. But in case the vendor has only vanilla, no probs, I will adjust :p

30. OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU TAGGED THIS TO, WHO'S MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST?
Geo already tagged all the ppl in my blog-world. The few remining were tagged by Rat. I don't have any to tag :(

Blog in Progress..97% Complete

Who was that moron who got this idea to develop the ever-hated Progress Bar thingie??? Probably developed with all the good intentions in the world, he would never in his wildest dream have thought that people would howl and scream, tear their hair apart watching it grow in a snail's pace.

How many times have you tried to pull those green boxes in a failed attempt to drag it to 100%!

How many times have you coaxed and cajoled yourself into believing "Okie..this would be the last one I would see for this install" and just when you think its over, there comes another window and yet another empty progress bar!

And as if one per screen was not enough, we have the all-new-double-progress-bar where when one completes to 100%, the other, with lot of effort, goes higher by 1%!!!! Duh!

C'mon yaar, there is height of being patient! And you allow yourself to be mocked at by this kind of logic, just because you don't have any other choice?? Sigh!

The other day, as I was staring at yet another merciless progress bar at work, I wondered if it would have been better staring at a black blank screen and letting my mind wander into other not-so-boring stuffs than play the self-invented-stupid game of speculating where the progress bar would reach when my system time shows 3:54!

All said and done, I have to agree that the moment we see the last cell getting colored green is one of pure ecstasy!



Download Complete!

Kaapi? :)

Those letters make it sound irresistible, especially when it appears on a chat window at office at around 3:30 PM, while you are fighting hard to keep your eye lids from dropping and you keep cursing the person who created that PDF document which you are trying to finish! All this while you had been scrolling up and down the document, minimizing the screen, taking a look at your To Do note, then shifting your eyes to the bottom right hand corner to check the system time..going back to the document..hummpphh.. so much more to go yaar!!! And that is when this tiny thing pops
up from your next-cubicle mate.."Coffee?" "Sure..", you type quickly and spring to your feet.

The vending machine gives me really bad coffee, but then drinking it is much easier than staying awake before that great PDF document at least!

Scene 2: Traveling on the pride of Indian Railways.. yet another hot day. You look out of the window and see barren land as the train passes through villages, ponds and fields filled with water-hyacinth with palm trees lining up their shores. You turn to look at the passengers in your compartment. Its the same set of people since the last 5 stations. The guy sitting near the window has been clutching his briefcase and sleeping for the past 3 hours now.. the middle-aged couple sitting right across seem to have boarded the train after a fight I think, they hardly talk! The lady sitting right next to you with a sleeping baby in hand, who has been looking at your hands
since she settled down, making you feel so conscious of your un-cut un-polished nails. Thats when somebody cries aloud and thats like music to the ears.. "Kawfeeeeeeeee kawfeeeeeee..." His container comes to view first and then the man. He settles and hands you the familiar tiny cup.

The soft wisps curl up and lightens your spirit. A train journey without a couple of "kawfeeee" is so incomplete!


Why go so far... A sumptuous lunch, Sunday afternoon siesta and then you wake up to a BIG cup of hot hot Bru Instant... eyes still half sleepy, images of some portions of the last dream still in your head, with a mouth that cries for a wash and that first sip to touch your tongue...hhmmm..heavenly!

Any time for coffee man!!!

Fry till Golden Brown..

Take any culinary book, am sure these lines would never be missed. Its there all over like a punchline!

Talking about recipe books, writing it is as much as an art as is cooking itself! You need to choose words with utmost care so that it tempts the reader to try it. Once the reader runs through all the ingredients required and is satisfied that (s)he has all the stuffs ready she is automatically drawn to the Method section. Now once (s)he starts reading the method, the author should hand-pick and present the words in such a way that he (more than often she) actually starts smelling the aroma of the spices being lightly fried in oil!!

Some tips (read as "culinary jargons") used to draw the readers attention are -
(Use these phrases in case you are looking for an alternate career in writing cookery book/online posts)

1) Onions are always fried till golden brown. Am sure many a times all of us would have wondered what exactly the golden brown colour was, but sure enough we have been made to believe that onions taste best when they are "fried till golden brown", a thing never achieved !!

2) Garnish with fresh mint leaves and blah blah... mmmm sounds so appealing! The readers would fall head over heels for this!

3) If you observed, recipes with simple names rarely catch your attention. Instead see the increase in page-hits you would get if you posted the simple recipe of prawn fry to Golden Fried Prawns in Sweet-n-Sour Vinegar Sauce.

4) Not to forget that colourful picture of a juicy chicken ready to be dug into surrounded with "garnishes from point# 2", a checkered napkin in white-n-red! Yeah man, its going to be nothing without an eye-catchy pic of the (supposedly) real thing

5) If its an online post, get your friends and parents to comment on your recipe. Bribe them to give you as many stars as possible for your ratings and watch the magic as some naive unassuming user(read: prey) searches for something and your recipe gets another hit!

Now who cares if your prey ends up skipping his dinner coz of half kilo grams of burnt prawns with a vinegar sauce that doesn't taste half as exotic as it sounds! You receive your hits (pun intended ;-))

Happy Writing!

Wheels of Change

I wasn't believing myself when I saw myself type on a chat window "Yaar,go for santro, it perfectly suits your budget and is a really good value-for-money car. If in case you can stretch a little, try Swift." and the guy (ok, mark this word, its a GUY !!) at the other end asks "What about i10? Hows the performance? " and I type without thinking twice "i10 is very good, but then don't you think its over-priced? " "Aur WagonR? kaisa hai? " and I reply confidently "Thats the ugliest looking car ever produced by man.. absolute waste!" We exchange a few more pleasantries and I end the conversation.. beaming like a first rank holder! Guess why..

Barely 2 years back, a car for me would be as simple as something that runs on the road, has 4 wheels and a cover on top. My knowledge of car (or any automobiles for that matter) was an absolute zero even though I had a valid driving license. And that I possessed coz I thought it would look odd in today's world not to hold one once you complete 18 yrs of age. After all 18 is the age to scream aloud to the world am finally officially an adult!

I think we are deviating from the primary topic of interest.. cars.. yes, I was mentioning how ignorant I was about cars. Back in school, I had this friend N, an absolute tomboy, who used to be such a car-lover that it was hard for me to resist all the gyan she gave me then! So though I despised that topic as much as Social Studies, I knew Celio (or was it Ceilo?) was a car which was big.

After school, it was again a state of pure bliss (read ignorance) about automobiles. And in I walked into the hustle and bustle of bangalore city, I meet this dude. He loved traveling, enjoyed having all kinds of food at all sorts of places, was ready to take risk and sit through many super-duper bollywood flops and.. loved his car (then an Indica) n bike (then and now a Pulsar 150 cc) like crazy!

Harmless, I thought. Though interests were aligned in exactly opposite directions we got along like a house on fire.

Unfortunately I didn't realize that spending a year with a car-lover means you might subconsciously expand the thesaurus meaning I had created for a car to little more than what a normal human being would.

The car-word got bigger and bigger and took different shapes in its meaning. Today I attend Auto Shows (huh!!! I would have committed suicide had I the power to predict the future 2 yrs ago!), can tell between different kinds of alloy wheels, can even imagine how they would look and hence choose between them, confidently comment that small cars look bad with a spoiler, and that European cars have extra performance and power and US cars, like any other market fall under the age-old "just looks" categories, watched the Tata Nano videos like some crazy car-enthusiast ;-)

Man, whatta transformation... now I read all the car columns in newspapers, and guess what, when a reader pops a question of which car would suit his requirements I am already ready with the answer that is usually in line with what is given by the professionals :-))) lolz...

And I still don't know if I ever loved cars... or even driving one!

10 Random Stuffs I find hard to Tolerate...

1) People being so vain enough to put their own pic as wallie in their cell phones.

2) Showing that you are totally jobless by converting orkut scraps to a chat service!

3) Anonymous friend requests on orkut with the profile being a member of atleast 25 porn communities.

4) Speaking on your mobile and driving..

5) The newly-sprung-retail-chain-supermarkets where every vegetable has to be wrapped in separate plastic covers, be it one small piece of cabbage or 3 lemons! Ever wondered where these plastics go after you dump it in your dustbin??

6) Mallus speaking English with an absolutely absurd sounding american accent -> 'green' sounds something like 'gzheeen' and creme becomes 'czheeem' with a tinge of 'r' somewhere getting lost in between. Of course, I hate the other extreme as well. One who says "oooyil" for 'oil' and 'loan' for 'lawn'!

7) Guys with extra-ordinarily long hair, let loose, looking half like King Cong and half human!

8) Auto drivers - the whole breed - without any specific clauses!!

9) Young girls(or guys) puffing away during breaks in office to reduce stress (??) !!

10) People taking hours to draw out money from an ATM with a long queue waiting behind them.

11) Couldn't stop at 10 as I promised.. :-( I hate FM radio with the jockey never shuttin up her

mouth and going blah-blah-blah...and most of the times playing the same numbers again and again!



(I have more, but I guess I should be a little more tolerant :-) )

Washed Away...

And they were gone...almost 4 or 5 pages , 2 of them completely irrecoverable. Through the thick film of tears in my eyes, I looked at them as I traced the fonts gel into one another and smearing the entire page with a light shade of pink. The pages were soggy wet and smelling like a buttermilk factory!

In a hopeless attempt to retreive them, I laid the pages carefully beneath the ceiling fan. The ceiling fan did its best but what was lost was gone forever!

My most precious and one and only cookery book which had ALL the info I had gathered all these months... from mathan elissery to paneer butter masala..were all gone! The utter helplessness that was written all over my face was more than enough to bring a riot of laughter around me... but the loss for me was indeed a great one!

Thankyou Ceiling fan, for trying your best! :-) Here are the results -

Lessons learnt :
1) Never keep your cookery book next to the milk left for curdling. It might overflow and drench your cook book pages!
2) Never take down recipes using an ink-pen or gel pin. Always use a ball-point pen.
3) Never depend on cook books FOR EVER. Coz they are never there FOREVER.

Monday in School...

This is the story I wrote for the short story contest in office today.. and coincidently it happens to be the first story I have penned in my life :-)

Little Neha never liked Mondays. She wondered why God had made a day thats not liked by just about anybody she has met in life.Mondays always seemed longer than any other day. Not just longer, they felt depressingly darker somehow.Mondays usually had you writing exams, submitting homeworks and sometimes, PTA meetings too!And as if all those were not enough to hate mondays, the Bangalore Traffic Jams, as daddy says!

And today was not just-another-monday, Neha knew. Her mom was back with her this weekend after a long span of 6 months in the US. Neha had pleaded her to take her along when her when her mom said she was to go onsite for 6 months. "In which country is onsite in mommy?" ,Neha had asked her, in between her sobs.. and mommy had laughed and taken her in her arms and said "No dear, onsite is not a place... Am going to work for a while in US for my company and that is called onsite".

She was so happy to have her mom back soon! Her grandma and grandpa had come from Chennai on Saturday and they had gone to pick her Mom from the airport on Sunday morning.

It had been a hectic weekend for little Neha. She had planned lot of surprises for her mom. Saturday was spent with Dad and Neha going around shopping for groceries, something that Neha used to love doing with her mom before she left. She would carefully pick up packets from the shelves and take a good look at whatever is written at the back, imitating her mom,
though she rarely understood anything.. but it made her feel like mommy and she loved the feeling! After taking care to pick up few packets of chikkis for her mom, she returned home and collected all her toys scattered around and put them neatly into her box.

Neha hardly slept on Saturday night thinking about all the things she planned to do once her mom is back home. She woke up her grandma time and again to ask if it was morning. She didn't remember when she slept, but was already awake and looking at the hands of the clock when grandma came to wake her up in the morning.

On Sunday she was ready even before her dad! And she stood next to the car and screamed "Daddy, come soon..we are going to be late!!" While she waited, she shouted in glee at the newspaper boy "My mama is coming today!!", and then at guy who supplied milk, at the watchman , at the uncle next door...!!

And when mom landed, Neha was running helter-skelter! She ran into her arms and hugged her mom, not speaking a word! Ah, mom's smell is so special! She was too happy to even speak!!

Back at home, the existence of dad,grandma and grandpa was completely ignored by little Neha and she was always with her mom. She did everything she had missed doing in the past 6 months.. she sang to her mom all the new songs she had learnt, mom made Neha her favourite cookies, they went out and had ice creams and then her mom read to her in the night and was at her bed side till she slept.. It was a perfect day!

Monday morning it is... Neha felt like crying out loud.. "Its not fair, I don't want to go to schoolll!!" but mom wouldn't listen. It had been raining heavily since the night before and it was quite cold.Neha remembered she had not done any of the school works in the weekend and her Dad had also completely forgotten about checking her school diary amidst all the weekend rush.

"Mommy, I have not done my English homework and the teacher is going to beat me.. You won't believe it, she beats really hard..I don't want to go...". Mom was not budging at all. She gave another pleading look at grandma knowing her heart would melt. "Let her stay at home Padma, after all she is a small kid". Neha nodded her head and with an even more sad face, she looked up at her mom again to see the response. Hmm.. no way! With a sunken heart she packed her bags and left to school in the rain.

In the bus,as she watched people on the roads with umbrellas, she thought of all the good times spent yesterday and then about her English teacher who is going to beat her soon. Neha never liked her English teacher, but yes, she hated Mondays more.

In the English class, ma'am walked in. Neha was scared to even wish her. She was the famous terror in her school.The kids never liked her because she never hesitated in beating them! Neha's throat was going dry. Teacher began looking into the notebooks of the children in the first bench.. one after the other..Neha was in the 3rd bench. As her turn was fast approaching, Neha was sweating though it was cold and damp outside.

She could hear the teacher getting angry at Rahul for having made a lot of mistakes. Tina was beaten and she began crying. Arun was sent out of the class because he didn't do his. She even said she wants to meet his parents.Peter, who sat next to Neha was fumbling with the pages when ma'am asked him his notebook. "GET OUT OF MY CLASS" she screamed and the whole class froze in silence. Peter was inconsolable.

Neha thought she would burst from within, the tension was mounting so high!

"Excuse me,ma'am. There is a message from the principal to all students" , Rajan uncle, the peon in the office was at the door. Ma'am took the paper from his hand and read out aloud to the class "On account of heavy rain in the city, considering the safety of students and members of staff, all classes have been suspended. Everybody is requested to leave the school premises and board the school buses rightaway and go home."

"Children,please go and board the school bus and return home... there are no classes today".. For a moment, Neha's face turned expressionless. Then all of a sudden she got up and screamed.."Yeeeeaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.." in joy!!

Soon enough the whole class was jumping with joy!! The teacher was also looking at the little ones and joining in thier celebrations... Everything had changed in a split second!!! Neha looked out through the glass panes as the rains lashed outside and whispered to herself
"thankyou rain!! Mondays are not so bad " and gigggled to herself.

"Pls take an Orkut Photo for me...! "

Thanks to orkut, we have few new words to add to the dictionary. A friend of mine has made a remark on the word "scraps" but more than anything, I think its the word "orkut Photo" thats catching up fast in people's lingo..

Lets try examining what type of word it is..
Of course,its more of an adjective to the word photo.. "Da,pls take an orkut photo of mine .." which means it should be good enough to be put as a profile picture in orkut. As a matter of fact, in order to call a photo "orkut photo" ,it should satisfy the following criteria -

1) Even if I look like a mirror-cracking material in real, in an orkut photo I should like the hero/heroine right out of a sugar-coated-lovey-dovey H(B)ollywood movie.

2)The background should be perfect.. Preferably looking very similar to European countryside or New York skyline. If they can't be met, its alright,pls refer to point no : 4 for a solution.

3)There should be a touch of professional charm in the photography .. you know,something like showing you in a silhoutte with a tiny ray of sun peeping out beneath!

4) For guyz, you get extra points if the photo is taken to show a jazzy car/bike along..and for girls, its any photo where they are decked up like the ladies in kyon ki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi or for that matter, any other K-serials of Ekta Kapoor ...

5) For a handful of people, this kind of photo is taken in such tricky a way that you-will-know-its-me-but-you-can't-see-my-face... like creatively wearing a mask, taking the photo in such a way that only a portion of your face is seen (and the pose looks so natural sometimes!) These people fall in those category where they are strictly forbidden to put their photo in orkut after their worried parents/spouses read about orkut crimes (now, that will soon be another new word !) in newspapers.

6) Orkut photo also happens to be updated very frequently, like ones resume !

A recent trend in orkut photo culture is that people tend to have a "status message" along with their names where they mention if their album has been updated today or not! And then there is a swarm of activity in their scrap books "you look choooo cute yaar" blah-blah...
If you are going on a holiday, few pics are shot mandatorily just to make them candidates for orkut photos and after 5 rounds of heavy rigorous screening which is capable of scaring even our historic Abhimanyu , one of them gets to be "The chosen one". And what follows is another couple of rounds of editing contrast,lighting,removing red-eye blah-blah until the expected degree of "glamourism" is achieved!
All said and done, it would have taken half of your day...and with a satisfied smile you upload your "orkut foto", only to realise that your best friend whom you located recently is still looking at the glamorous "orkut foto" and wondering who you are!Here you are,listing down in his public scrapbook all those moments in your life that were too embarassing for words just to help your weak-memoried friend map the ugly-duckling in school to the glam-doll in the "orkut foto" ! Sigh! :-) But life goes on...

Happy Orkut Photography!

Flash News : Absconding Blogger found in a new marital status!

Am back! After a long period of absence from (b)logam, I thought I needed a break from the busy life I was living! The last note of indication that I was alive happened on Dec 19th..after that life was whroooooommmm!!!! On Jan 21st, I got married to my best(est) friend, we moved to our new home on Jan 30th, honeymooned in Goa,Delhi and Manali and got back after a nice luxuriously pampered holiday, on Feb 10th, sun kissed and full of enthu ... only to be bit by the reality ---> " OUR NEW HOME " sounds romantic enough, but the flip side of the coin reveals the 2 BHK's pathetic condition ... the word "new" in "Our new home" is a far call to being romantic, unless it happens like in the ads on TV where the hero brings in the heroine blind-folded into the new house and the moment he unfolds her, the song sequence flows in .. "yeh he mera ghar..mera hamsafar.." and the heroine takes alook around at the beautifully lit house,sparkingly clean and decorated...hugs the hero and the name of the Paints come on the screen! For the two of us,the house was still very much terrifyingly new...which roughly translates to something like the moment you open the main door,you should be closing your nose rather than your eyes coz you are greeted with a cloud of dust.. step in with your right foot forward and as you move on, you will turn back and see that you have indeed lovely foot prints against the film of cement powder on the floor.

So with both of us literally "biting the dust", there was nothing other than dusting, vaccuming, cleaning, mopping, dusting, cleaning, mopping, again vaccuming, shopping, more shopping, still more shopping, exchanging shopped items, transfering goods here and there, bringing our things to the 3rd floor taking the stairs coz the lifts were not functional...phew!!! In one week, with the able support from my mom and dad, we were almost settled.. (and so had the dust!)..

Soon the kitchen had some activities going on ..Thanks to mom! Every other day on my way back in the bus I would remind myself that I will have to do the cooking once mom goes back to Kerala and so learn to cook atleats one dish today! But sadly enough, by the time I reached home, point one ,I would be dog tired after being mentally over powered by 2 major traffic jams and a mosquitoe laden bus.. point two , mom would have already got the dinner ready! :-(

After a week's no-responsibilities-yet-married (!!) state of bliss, my dad and mom left to Kerala (boo-hoo!!) and the truth stuck me.. The kitchen is under my jurisdiction ! With the highly infectious compliments from hubby dear ( I taste the curry and say...wow..it tastes amazing... and he tastes it and I wait and watch his expressions and look away only after I make sure that he starts feeling "wow..it tastes amazing" :-)) ) I managed to have a good start with veggie dishes and during an auspicious weekend, I laid my hands on fishes as well. The Success Story in the Kitchen was taking me to the seventh heaven and the feeling of pride was as obvious as the taste of salt in my dishes and ploooooop...one day 2 nice juicy pieces of neimeen turned to karimeen ( :(( --> karimeen = karinja + meen )! That one incident was enough to bring me down from a feeling-of-high aka Am-I-Tarla-Dalal !

After 3 months,am still picking up the basic lessons of cooking..I have 2 books that I hold close to my heart for survival--> both self authored by a famous cook back home (yeah, my mom!) which gives me detailed instructions like no one can give (Eg : Take 3/4th spoon of salt if you are using the spoon inside your salt dabba or take 1 spoon in case you are using the new ones we bought from ******* super market! Or in another instance, she says, take the dal from the
jars on the left cup-board ,so that I don't demonstrate my famous dal-indentification-knowlege (or lack of it) !)

So life has been treating me good...and so has my husband :) (News about my "animal husbandry" (!!) would require yet another blog...so am saving it for the next time...I have loadddddsss to tell you !!)

And in case you thought I was sticking to my home..naah... am back at work too...and juggling the 2 totally different "applications" decently well :-))

Time for me to make dinner now...Catch u on another day...Till then...Take care... and Get married soon... (Believe me,all those nasty quotes of weddings are nothing but media-hype ;-) Actually,its great!!)

For you, Vaish and Malu..

Most of my posts on this blog have been reminiscences of my childhood. And it goes without saying that my friends in school, without their knowledge, played a role in making me the person I am. Infact , there might not be anything significant looking at it in a glance, but from a closer perspective, you realise how much those small changes they made out of you are still carried along in your persona. Probably, these small changes are your distinguishing attribute today that people identify you with. This post is a small dedication to all my friends I have had until now to show them how much they have meant to me and specifically targeted at two people in my life for whom the tag "My Best Friends" is only an understatement - Dedicated to Vaish and Malu.

Galz, I know its been a looong time since we cuddled together for a warm chat catching up on the latest of the latest of things under the sun, but those memories still linger fresh in my mind.. Am very very sorry that I am posting our loony-toony thoughts and embarrassingly funny ideas on this blog, but I thought this was the best way to get nostalgic! :-) So start turning pink.... :-))

Remember galz, when somebody asked about our friendship we used to make sure one of us
mentioned this vital stats without fail that "Our friendship,you know, dates back to 1989 !! " and how we loved to watch in eager the expression on the listeners face doing atleast 5 rounds of change from an "hmm" to " ohhh??" to "wow" to "thats cool" to "going green with jealousy" to "ohh,they are so proud" !!! The "going green with jealousy" was our fave among them :-)) Even if this emotion wasn't evident (for the plain reason that it was absent!) we would imagine that everybody would get jealous at that statement!!! lolz..! And remember how the teachers would ask us "Where is the third of the trimurthi?? " when one of us stayed back in class ??

Any idea how many pranks we have played on the poor librarians??? Vaish, I know you might be praying from the bottom of your heart that I shouldn't mention about the embarrassing incident when you placed the Nancy Drew you borrowed from the library on one of the cycles of God-alone-knows-who only to find the cycle missing after we returned..and you lied to T* Sir that you had returned the book to him on Wednesday evening... You sounded so convincing to even Malu and me who knew the truth very well that no wonder T* sir relented in the end and actually said " Oh yes...I rememeber..Vaishnavi,You did return the book on wednesday and I probably didn't update the register" !!! Vaish , you still retain the crown for the Best Liar I have ever met!!!

And remember those after-school Club Activities hours.. when we would wait for that one painfully long hour of painting to get over so that we can run through the dark verandahs in the school playing Hide-n-Seek and Help? And remember how we all used to desert A* in the game by making him the seeker always coz we thought he was too irritating?? And during one of those days the three of us somehow got away from the rest of the kids when we stopped to drink some water and Malu got so drunk (yes guys, Just plain H2O ! ) that she fell on the floor and was later found dancing to a Suneil Shetty number "oh jaaneman " ??

And I think it was during one of those after-school club activities days while we munched away those (banned) yummy paruppuvadas (made out of "unhygienic oil, don't have it children" - or so claimed by A* ma'am ,who nevertheless had 2 of them everyday at sharp 11 AM ) wrapped in newspaper from our very own 5* Manju Tea Stall that we decided we will have a reunion , just the three of us, in the year 2010, on Dec 25th at nowhere but Manju Tea Stall ! What of that galz ?? :D

And how we loved to imitate our teachers... especially the way P* sir said"Portiaaaa ...hmmm..portia ki umar shaayad pachaas teekh rahegi .." and greyed out my hair entirely for the Shakespeare play for the Annual Day despite me screaming in protest .."Sirrr....Portia is married just nowwwwww...She is young!!" And what about those series of humorous characters ,better known in school as Social Science teachers... remember S* ma'am, who at the thought of her upcoming wedding went to a shopping spree, only to buy a hand-bag looking half like a pomeranian pup and half like a snow man , and looking the least like a hand-bag of a school teacher!! I remember Vaish blushing and answering "Sunsilk,ma'am " when she asked her "Which shampoo do you use Vaishnavi ?" !!!! And the way she used to start every History class with her trade marked sentence "Bachon, aaj me tumhe itihaas ek kahani ke roop me sunaathi hoo ..puraaaaaaane kaal me jab bhaarath me aarya log rehthe the tab bharath me chaaaaaaar varg the... brahman,kshatreeya,vaish aur shoodra..isme braahman.. " zzzzzzzzz.... :-)) What about her successor L* ma'am who resembled a horse when she got angry!

Remember those times we got sooooo jealous when MK* ma'am ignored us completely in the English periods and showered all her attention on A* ?? And we vowed we would come up with better ideas for our activities ..much better than A*'s :-) , and we believed (hoped!) secretely she still had a soft corner for us and that she was just not showing it out! It wouldn't be fair on my part to skip a mention about the Hindi classes by S* Sir! I remember how everything would just vapourize away from our heads and we would jsut be blinking away when he asks us a question, his eyes gleaming with terror !!! And remember all those times we ended up writing essays as impositions " only 500 times, before 3 o' clock " even though we knew the answer but had gone into a paralysis when the hand was pointed at us followed by a thundering "You" !!!

Okie, lets not mumble about our teachers now...we did love them a lot for whoever they are ! :-) And galz, I wonder what happened to our "Dead Man's Path" , the banned shortcut to the library where you had to duck your heads as we pass in front of princi's office enroute! Not to mention that deserted machine in the play ground which had enough nooks and hideouts for us to play hide-n-seek ! Of course, I remember that sapling we had all planted together on Vanamahotsava. The mud was so dirty that it was stinking and we were very close to our guess about a toilet being in its vicinity, but after all that effort, I still remember the wide smiles we had on our faces when we watered it! I guess it must have become a tree by now !

Do you remember how we used to read only "fat" books so that we could score atleast 5 point in one go to earn the Reading Habit Award?? Or those moments of Shivaji-Raman-Tagore-Asoka House competitions! Can't forget those Annual Day Drama practices... the secret crushes we have had,followed by the crush-failures(!!).... how we took turns when only 2 were allowed in one bench and one of us had to move out and sit with Ms A*.. how we returned home after a good 8 hours spent talking in school , yet found something new to talk on the phone from five in the evening to seven !! And how my mom scolded me for keeping the phone busy (those days we didn't have that "Press 2" option to keep somebody on hold...all mommy could hear for hours was the familiar bugging beeeeeeeeeeeep beeeeeeeep!!)

Phew!!!! I could go on and on, coz there is still so much unsaid about the absent-minded Malu who used to cry so much initially for every single reason which used to scare us a little...Her eyes would go red and they would well up with tears,big blots streaming down her face while she screamed "I am NOT crying" :-)) (OK,I have to admit that later on she literally stopped crying and even when the whole class cried,she wouldn't and she would look at others with an expression that suggested crying was a sin !!) or the emotional Vaish who sometimes got too emotional that Malu and me were met with a tearful Vaish after our class-play about Brain-Drain in English class! May be a part 2 will follow... !!! Probably more parts!!! :-))) But I guess I should stop here ofr today!! Love you buddies, for all your gimmicks and love!!!! Ciao!

And am Engaged!!!!

Its been a very long time since I used this space and I feel so sick thinking about it.. So today,being in a very carefree mood and more importantly, with no work to keep me from whiling away time, I thought i will use it to declare something important in here.

Rather than write about something, I thought I can write about someone today : Me :-) and whats going on in my life these days!

Btw Readers, the other day I got engaged :-)) I know, I sound like as if I said "The other day I went for Casino Royale" . But then, its true :-D ,believe me, I did get engaged..lolz!!! Also,I request you to read "The Other Day" as Oct 29th, almost a month ago!

The guy is ...well...err...never mind :-) And though I know its a little late and it should have happened when I was in Std 9th itself (I think I have mentioned this in one of my previous post) , am relieved that its finally happened ;-)And yeah, see my ring.... :-)

Time for some thought...

The other day I watched "United 93" with friends.Needless to say,it was a nice movie.Theme was excellent,casting was well done since none of the actors were "heros" , they were just actors and a movie like "United 93" needed exactly that - pure actors. It was fast paced,the kind of movie you would readily tag as "on-the-edge-of-the-seat"-er.

I found this one particular scene in the movie really thought-provoking (Well,to tell the truth, I got some food for thought,rather,food for some thought which I couldn't make out what!) .

There is this time in the movie when the hijackers are in the cockpit franctically trying their best to reach their target on time and they are losing hope. The guy flying the plane is profusely sweating and the veins on his forehead are jutting out,taut. The tension on his face is so overwhelming. He is seen uttering some prayer under his breath while he tries to maneouvre the plane. The camera zooms in and you can make out his lips quivering with the Arabic words, praying out to Almighty Allah.

In the next second, the camera is focussed on a passenger in the hijacked plane - an elderly American woman, eyes tightly shut,also seen letting out a prayer through her lips, in English, calling out to the great Messiah of Christianity. The fear on her face shows on those thin lines on her forehead,sweat dotting her chin and palms held tightly to her hand rest.

The pair of scenes was a cry of irony! One, praying to the God to help him in destruction and other, knowingly or unknowingly,praying to the SAME God to thwart this plan of destruction and help her and her friends get to safety.

I didn't know what conclusion I will be able to come to , if I thought on this line,or whether I would be able to come to any at all. But I was certain about one thing, the famous one-liner "God is one" so commonly seen all around is not just a simple sentence that you can teach a 6 year old about. Its disheartening to note that we human beings would keep underestimating its value forever....